So bad it even made it into Wednesday's State Dept press briefing:QUESTION: Just one question. Can I please read a news report --MR TONER: Yeah.QUESTION: -- and wonder if you can comment on this.MR TONER: Okay.QUESTION: Airstrikes on an Islamic State-held town near Iraq’s western border --MR TONER: I’m sorry, he coughed and I just missed it. I apologize.QUESTION: Sure, sure, sure. So the report says airstrikes on
an ISIL-held town near Iraq’s western border with Syria killed dozens of
people on Wednesday, including many women and children, two
parliamentarians and local hospital sources said – they said the
airstrikes hit a busy market in the town of Qaim in Iraq’s Anbar
province. Anbar lawmaker Ahmed al-Salmani and hospital sources said 55
civilians were killed. Can you comment on this?MR TONER: I cannot. It’s the first time I’m hearing of it, so
we’ll look into it. Is there any greater clarity on who was behind the
airstrikes or – okay. Okay.QUESTION: I would ask you if you --

MR TONER: Yeah. I’ll look into it. This is the first time I heard about it.

For the record, spokesperson Mark Toner and the press ignored (again)
the three Americans held in an Iraqi prison -- Canadian Michael Kennedy
was held with them. The Canadian government secured Michael's release
earlier this week. The three Americans (and two Germans) remain held,
unidentified and unreported on in the US press.

Air strikes on Wednesday killed dozens of people, including many
women and children, in an Islamic State-held town near Iraq’s western
border with Syria, two parliamentarians and local hospital sources said.

They said the air strikes hit a busy market in the town of Qaim, in
Iraq’s Anbar province. The local hospital sources said 55 civilians were
killed, including 12 women and 19 children, in three air strikes.

The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency published video purportedly
showing the aftermath of what it called a "massacre perpetrated by Iraqi
aircraft" in al-Qaim. The footage showed vehicles on fire on a main road lined with shops, damaged buildings, and the bodies of several children.

In June of 2014, the Islamic State seized the city of Mosul.

52 days ago, the Iraqi government finally launched an initiative to liberate (or 'liberate') Mosul.

While predatory media drones like Elise Labott have rushed to insist
that the operation was going beautifully, reality has frequently begged
to differ.

War Crimes have been reported throughout the operation (just as was the case in the 'liberation' of Falluja and Ramadi).

MIDDLE EAST EYE notes, "A spokesperson for the provincial
council of Anbar claimed the strike was carried out by an Iraqi aircraft
and demanded a government probe." RUDAW quotes
a statement Speaker of Parliament Saleh al-Jabouri posted to his
Facebook page: "The parliament speaker holds the (Iraqi) government
responsible
for committing such mistakes while calling on it to open an immediate
investigation to reveal the truth and guarantee that it will not happen
again."

And the US government was quick to insist that they weren't involved in the strike.

The US military has deliberately conducted an airstrike on a hospital
in the Iraqi city of Mosul, it said on Wednesday, after saying its
Iraqi allies came under fire by Islamic State fighters from the hospital complex.

SOUTHWEST ASIA —On Dec. 6th, Iraqi Security Forces attempted to seize the Al Salem
hospital complex from ISIL fighters in the heart of East Mosul. ISIL was
using the hospital as a base of operations and command and control
headquarters. After seizing the area, the ISF fought off several
counterattacks and six VBIEDs the following day before retrograding a
short distance, under heavy enemy fire, to strengthen their position.

On
Dec. 7th, after Iraqi forces continued to receive heavy and sustained
machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire from ISIL fighters in a
building on the hospital complex, they requested immediate support from
the Coalition. In support of the Iraqi Security Forces, Coalition
aircraft conducted a precision strike on the location to target enemy
fighters firing on Iraqi forces.

The
Coalition complies with the Law of Armed Conflict and takes all
feasible precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to
reduce the risk of harm to non-combatants. We will continue to strike
ISIL military targets in support of our partners in order to defeat ISIL
in Iraq.

Ackerman adds:In a poll released this week,
the International Committee of the Red Cross found that 82% of people
surveyed in 16 countries considered it wrong to attack “hospitals,
ambulances and health-care workers in order to weaken the enemy”. The
proportion of people agreeing drops to 79% when only residents of the
US, Russia, China, UK, France and Switzerland are questioned.

Of course it's wrong, it's a War Crime, legally defined as such.

The Mousl operation has been little more than a license to kill Sunni civilians.

fake news can lead to death, just not the exact fake news and exact deaths media eels prefer to talk about

5 replies140 retweets336 likes

Fake news kills -- when dispensed by the MSM.

Right now, the corporate media is trying to find isolated individuals
and rushing to blame the actions of these individuals on, yes, fake
news.

They're as stupid as the disgraced Corinne Brown.

What they're doing is shredding the wall they themselves created years ago.

That's the wall that enshrines the theory/hypothesis of the lone gunman -- the lone actor.

It'll be interesting the results of the corporate media's latest tantrum as it plays out over the next few years.

They never took accountability for Iraq.

And let's include the trash outside the corporate media in this -- the cesspool that now is MOTHER JONES magazine.

They didn't take accountability for the Iraq War.

They didn't support truth tellers.

Quite the contrary, two old biddies who thought they could buy their way
into a rag and then water it down also thought that the pro-peace,
pro-truth telling thing to do would be to hire as columnist . . .
someone who endorsed the Iraq War.

Yes, that dreadful and self-righteous bore Kevin Drum.

And what did the two old biddies do besides that?

They didn't celebrate women.

They felt no compulsion -- even at rag named "MOTHER" JONES -- to spotlight women writers.

Jamie, the ugly Stephanie explained, had a story that didn't match that
of two men -- two men who may have raped her but, hey, if two men say a
woman's lying about rape, then a woman's lying, right?

It took hateful bitches like Stephanie Mencimer, Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery to embrace rape culture.

They ran with it.

Let's break down some basics: Rape is not about love or passion.

Rape is a crime and it's about control.

Rape victims do not have to act a certain way.

But the three bitches of MOTHER JONES condemned Jamie for going to work
the next day and for not breaking down in tears but putting on a brave
face instead -- this, they insisted, was not how a rape victim acts.

Really?

They weren't done, the three bitches -- and maybe they're jealous of
Jamie because they're so ugly, especially Stephanie who looks like the
dumpy, ugly girl in Brian De Palma's CARRIE -- no, they then wanted to
try to use her medical history against her.

She had ailments.

And The Mother Jones Bitches Three felt that's what you do when a woman
says she was raped, look for ailments in her past history to paint her
as crazy or a liar.

Jamie's not a liar.

As I noted when she lost her case, I believe her.

I believe her to this day.

Her story has been consistent and no one's managed to establish that she's a liar.

She lost her case -- and that is too often what happens when a woman is raped.

For The Mother Jones Bitches Three to then go after her?

And to go after her with a piece of trash, garbage report that you'd expect to show up in some trashy nudie magazine?

They should be ashamed of themselves.

Actually, they should do the world a favor and discontinue public life.

They are hateful bitches who destroy women and elevate men.

I suppose we should have sympathy for The Mother Jones Bitches Three since they are so very unattractive.

And God help you if you are an ugly girlCourse too pretty is also your doom'Cause everyone harbors a secret hatredFor the prettiest girl in the room
"32 Flavors" written by Ani DiFranco, first appears on her album NOT A PRETTY GIRL

We link to living artists (plus Cass, she's our only exception) and I believe Kat's already reported on the death of Ani and the funeral.
For those who fill that sentiment is less than charitable, just keep
telling yourselves that Antebellum Ani, like the Confederacy, will rise
again. And, no doubt, she will do so at Iberville Parish's Nottoway
Plantation.